Embodiments of the present invention relate to codeset generation and, more specifically, to on-demand codeset converter generation.
A codeset is an encoding of characters understandable by a computer system. For instance, although a set of characters and strings appears in a message directed to a user at a computer, the computer receives an encoding of those characters that must be interpreted. However, different computer systems or applications are configured to handle different encodings. This can be problematic when displaying on one computer or application a document that was generated on a different computer or application. If the two computers or applications use different codesets, then the document will appear differently on the screen and, in some cases, may be unreadable.
Codeset converters exist to convert between codesets, or encodings. With a codeset converter, a computer system can convert between codesets. Thus, a document from a computer system that used a first encoding can become readable on a computer system that uses a second encoding. Codeset conversion is an important feature in multi-national server operation systems. Finding and loading codeset converters are often necessary for information exchange, security authentication, data transfer, and database access.
A mapping table can be defined for converting a character set of one codeset (i.e., selected characters from the codeset) to another codeset. A converter from one codeset to another is based on such a mapping table. However, occasionally, a mapping between codesets may change and require updating due to changes in industry standards, and as such, both the mapping table and the converter will also require updating. Service providers offer codeset converter compilers, which compile codeset converters and are designed to generate updated codeset converters based on updated mapping tables. For instance, a user requests a codeset converter compiler with certain parameters, including a new mapping table. The service provider provides the requested codeset converter compiler, and the user runs it, resulting in a new codeset compiler. The user can then use the new codeset converter for future conversions.